By Admin 
Pew Research Center Report, based in Washington, America, has said in a new study that the religious structure of the world has been changing rapidly in the last decade. Between 2010 and 2020, there was a huge increase in the global population and the number of almost all major religions increased, but among all this, the growth of the Muslim population was the fastest, while the share of Christianity has gradually declined.
According to Pew Research Center Report, there were about 2.18 billion Christians in the world in 2010, which increased to 2.30 billion in 2020. Despite the increase in numbers, the proportion of Christians in the world population decreased from 30.6% to 28.8%. The study also found that the birth rate in Christianity remained the same, but a large number of people were leaving the religion. According to the author of the report, Conrad Hackett, for every new Christian, three people distance themselves from Christianity. This nature is affecting the population of Christian society.
Rapid expansion in population of Islam
Between 2010 and 2020, the population of Islam has increased by approximately 34.7 crores. Now the number of Muslims in the world has exceeded 2 billion. Their share increased from 23.8% to 25.6%. There are many reasons for this increase, like the rate of conversion here is very low, due to which the natural increase is happening rapidly. Experts estimate that in the coming decades the Christian and Muslim populations may be almost equal.
Hinduism and Judaism stable population
The report shows that the population of Hindu religion increased by about 126 million and its total has reached 1.2 billion. Yet globally its share remains stable at around 14.9%. A slight increase was also recorded in Judaism, it was 1.38 crore in 2010, which increased to 1.48 crore in 2020. This is still only 0.2% of the world’s population. There is very little conversion in both the religions, due to which their position remained stable.
Decline in Buddhism and rise of non-religious
The population of Buddhism was 34.3 crore in 2010, which decreased to 32.4 crore in 2020. Low birth rate and conversion were the main reasons for its decline. On the other hand, the number of unaffiliated or non-religious people has increased. This category includes atheists, agnostics and those who do not want to join any religion. Their share was 23.3% in 2010, which increased to 24.2% in 2020. This has happened because of people leaving religion from Christian society. The largest number of unaffiliated people are found in China, America and Japan.
Growing religiosity in Africa and Asia
The report states that now about 31% of the world’s Christians live in Sub-Saharan Africa, whereas in 2010 this figure was 24.8%. The high birth rate and young population here are the main reasons for this. On the contrary, the influence of Christianity is declining in Europe. In African countries like Mozambique, an increase of about 5% has been recorded in the Christian population. Pew Research Center report states that by the middle of the 21st century, Christians and Muslims together will lead almost half of the world’s population. Secularism and disaffiliation will increase in developed countries, while religious identity and faith will become stronger in Africa and Asia.
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